Grand Prix of Italy -
Free Practice Round-Up
Friday 10 September 2004
Olivier
Panis (Car 17, Chassis TF104/09B)
First Session Classification: 15th, 8 laps completed Lap Time: 1m22.487s
(+1.961s)
Second Session Classification: 18th, 15 laps completed Lap Time: 1m22.813s
(+1.967s)
"It was not such a good day for me, as my car was suffering from a rear
vibration and a problem with the brake pedal. Unfortunately, we could not
find the source of the disturbance during the sessions, so I struggled to
carry out the usual Friday programme. Now we must check the data carefully
in order to find out where the problem comes from, so we can fix it. Due to
the time we lost today, it is important that we can make full use of
tomorrow's free practice sessions."
Ricardo
Zonta (Car 16, Chassis TF104/10B)
First Session Classification: 16th, 10 laps completed Lap Time: 1m22.607s
(+2.081s)
Second Session Classification: 14th, 22 laps completed Lap Time: 1m22.298s
(+1.452s)
"After a productive test session here in Monza last week, I think we
continued our work in a positive way today. During the test, we concentrated
on a variety of things in preparation for this race, but we did not work so
much on the balance of the car. Today's two sessions were very useful to
work on fine-tuning the set-up and I am very happy with the balance we have.
We also carried out the usual Michelin comparison and we found a consistent
tyre for qualifying and the race. It was a good first day and we have
learned a lot for the rest of the weekend."
Ryan
Briscoe (Car 38, Chassis TF104/07)
First Session Classification: 17th, 21 laps completed Lap Time: 1m22.815s
(+2.289s)
Second Session Classification: 12th, 35 laps completed Lap Time: 1m22.197s
(+1.351s)
"I am extremely happy with the work we managed to achieve today. We had a
few difficulties with the car set-up in the first practice, but the team
worked well to make improvements over the lunchbreak. Consequently, the car
was in good shape right from the start of the second session. We completed
both sets of long runs perfectly with no problems whatsoever. Combined with
the work that we were able to complete at last week's Monza test, I hope we
can be quite competitive this weekend."
Mike Gascoyne - Technical Director Chassis: "It was a mixed
start to the weekend. Ryan completed his standard programme of evaluating
the two Michelin compounds that we have here and both tyres seem to be very
consistent. Ryan was happy with the balance of his car and he did an
excellent job throughout the day. Unfortunately, Olivier felt a vibration at
the rear of his car in both sessions that we could not trace. We will find
and cure the problem for tomorrow morning. Overall, though, we seem to have
a competitive package here for this weekend with a reasonably strong pace
over the long runs." |